Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball Recipe

This chocolate chip cheese ball only takes a few simple ingredients and is perfect for any party! So if you’re looking for a last minute dessert idea, look no further! This recipe is quick and easy to make, and it tastes delicious too! The crunchy chocolate chips are the perfect complement to the cream cheese flavor!

hand holding a cookie over a chocolate chip cheese ball

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I’ll be honest, I’ve never been the biggest fans of cheese balls. There are a couple that I like including this Christmas tree cheese ball.

That was before I realized that you could make dessert cheese ball.

Life changing. Dessert cheese balls are my new favorite thing.

This chocolate chip cheese ball is great for pretty much any occasion since chocolate chips are just a good classic flavor.

Make it to serve up with your favorite Christmas appetizers, put it next to the no bake pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, or bring it to a baby shower.

Whatever the occasion, I can guarantee this will be gone before you know it!

This recipe is also great because you can change the ingredients up to fit what you like. You can use different flavors of chocolate chips or change up the nuts if that’s more your taste!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Typical ingredients – everything in this cheese ball, you probably already have in your house and if not, they’re all readily available at your local grocery store.
No fail recipe – as long as you get the ingredient measurements correct and put in all of the ingredients, there’s really no way to mess this one up. It’s simple and delicious.
Dessert dip – one of the things I love the most about dessert dips, like this brownie batter dip, is that people can have as much or as little as they want, unlike if they were eating a say a piece of this red velvet cake. So there’s no waste and people get to choose their portions!

Ingredients

Ingredient Notes

Cream cheese – make sure that your cream cheese is at room temperature so that it mixes nicely.
Butter – use unsalted (or it’ll be real salty!) softened butter. Just like with the cream cheese, you want it to be soft so you can mix it and get a nice creamy texture.
Chocolate chips – I like to use mini semi-sweet chocolate chips but you could substitute any other mini chips as well. I recommend doing the minis because they just mix into the cheese ball better but if you only have larger ones, I recommend doing a rough chop first.
Pecans – I like to use pre-chopped pecans that are in little pieces. If you have full pecans, just rough chop them until they’re like the bagged ones that come in small pieces. The idea is to be able to cover the ball with chopped pecans. This would also work with chopped walnuts, I just prefer pecans.

What to Dip in a Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball

I didn’t include this in the ingredients but you’ll also need things to dip in the cheese ball. These are some of my personal favorites!

Fresh fruit – strawberries are always a good choice
Vanilla Wafers
Graham crackers
Shortbread cookies
Oreos
Pretzels (the sweet and salty effect is delicious)

You get it! So many options. Anything you’d dip in a dessert dip would probably be good in this cheese ball.

How to make a chocolate chip cheese ball

Even if you aren’t a fan of chocolate chips in cookies (I mean are there really people like that!?!), I bet this cheese ball will change your mind about chocolate chips in general!

If your friends are like mine, they’ll be asking for the recipe as soon as they try this! Luckily, it’s so easy to make that you can probably just tell them right there! Or give them the link to this blog post, I won’t mind you sharing at all!

Anyway, let’s see how easily this comes together!

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until light and fluffy.

Add powdered sugar and brown sugar and beat until well combined.

Now fold in the chocolate chips until mixed throughout. You want to make sure and fold in the chocolate chips so that they don’t end up in tiny little pieces. It’s called a chocolate chip cheese ball for a reason!

Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.

chocolate chip cheese ball in a glass bowl

After the mixture has chilled, remove it from the bowl and place onto a large piece of plastic wrap, shape it into a ball, then wrap in the plastic wrap and refrigerate for an additional hour or longer.

I like to sometimes do this the night before, especially if I have a lot of yummy food to make for a party that has to be made the day of.

Overnight is great, an hour is good enough.

chocolate chip cheese ball on a white plate

Take the cheese ball out of refrigerator, remove plastic wrap, and roll the ball in pecans, making sure to cover the entire outside with the chopped pecans.

chocolate chip cheese ball rolled in pecans

Serve with different sweet treats such as vanilla wafers, strawberries, graham crackers and cookies. You can either put it on a plate with all of the dippers or just put it on a plate by itself and serve it next to the dippers.

Whatever you do, make sure it’s clear that it’s a sweet chocolate chip cheese ball inside (maybe use these DIY cheese board labels) or people may think it’s a regular cheese ball and steer clear!

chocolate chip cheese ball surrounded by Vanilla Wafers

The best part about this dish?

Clean up is quick and easy so other than the one bowl, there are no dishes to left to do when you’re finished enjoying your masterpiece! If you’re looking for something sweet that will keep everyone at your next party happy, you’re definitely going to want to this try this recipe!

Expert Tips

Make sure to let the ball refrigerate for long enough otherwise you’ll end up with something creamy but not scoopable and you want people to be able to scoop some out and put it on their plate.

Refrigerate the cheese ball when not serving. You can keep it wrapped in the plastic wrap for freshness and leave it in the fridge for up to a week.

Don’t forget to include some gluten-free dippers to go along with the cheese ball. The recipe itself is gluten-free but often times people will just do cookies, crackers, and other things like that. Include the fruit, gluten-free cookies, and other goodies!

Double the recipe for a bigger group. You can jus double the ingredients and make a bigger ball – no need to split it up or do two separate balls.

Recipe FAQs

Can you freeze a chocolate chip cheese ball?

You can freeze the cheeseball by wrapping it tightly in plastic wrap then leaving in the freezer for up to a month. If you know you’re going to freeze it, I actually recommend freezing it without the nuts then adding the nuts once it’s thawed before serving.

What to serve with chocolate chip cheese ball?

This cheese ball is best served with fresh fruit, cookies, sweet crackers, Vanilla Wafers, and anything else you’d normally serve with a dessert dip.

More Dessert Dips

If you like how easy this cheese ball is to make, you’ll love these other dip recipes!

Pumpkin Dip – this delicious creamy pumpkin dip is made with just a few ingredients and goes great at any fall setting!
Cream cheese caramel apple dip – creamy, caramely, and absolutely delicious! This is one dip you’ll be making year after year!
Homemade fruit dip – just four ingredients make this yummy fruit dip that’s great served alongside any fruit you can think of!
Fruit salsa – the perfect summer dessert dip, this fruit salsa is filled with sweet fruits and a little simple syrup!
Strawberry soup recipe – a bright and summery dessert that’s half dip, half soup and all sorts of delicious.

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